A few things you should know here: yes, you’re cooking the food which kills the probiotic bacteria (and yes, you need to cook the millet to make it edible), but there are still important benefits. In addition to making the grains taste ah-maze-ing, soaking them is important for digestion. Followers of many grain-free diets will know that phytic acid is present in grains, nuts, seeds and some other plant matter as well. It binds up nutrients, especially minerals, and prevents us from digesting them among other things. Long term, this could potentially be bad that some grain-free folks believe will lead to mineral deficiencies that in turn slow your metabolism, give you fatigue and all other kinds of health crap you definitely do not want to deal with.

You should have some bubbly foam on your millet.

The good news is that fermentation eradicates phytic acid and by soaking your grains, nuts and seeds, you make them more healthful and digestible and you make the other nutrients you’re consuming more absorbable as well. Yippee! There is a TON of speculation on this topic out there and also quite a bit of solid science. If you want to know more than I do, google “phytic acid” and head down the linky rabbit hole!

Cover your bowl. I dig this bee’s wrap but saran wrap is fine.

This recipe calls for cracking the grain, which you can do by pulsing it in the food processor or, if you like to workout while you cook, crushing it with a mortar and pestle. Cracking the grain makes the sugars more available to the microbes, thus promoting fermentation. I’ve found you don’t have to do a ton of cracking, but it certainly does help!

Brandon Byers is a bona fide badass. If you don’t already know him from his podcast, FermUp, it’s time to head on over there to take a listen. I wish I could tell you about all of his projects, because they are incredibly impressive, but I’ll leave that to him and merely ask for your trust that this guy knows his business. His approach to fermentation is definitely the kind that leads him way below the surface. He’s the kinda guy who will resolve an issue by gaining the deepest possible understanding of that issue and then building a thing from scratch to solve his problem. Oven temp not right? He builds the equipment! Curiosity brewing about why particular bacteria give this particular texture? He reads food microbiology textbooks while rocking his son to sleep until he finds the answer. See? A badass. His inaugural cookbook, The Everyday Fermentation Handbook, accurately showcases his tendency towards creativity and digging deep. It also makes for an incredibly fun and inventive guide to all things fermented.

If you aren’t already familiar with culture vendors such as Cultures for Health, Yemoos or GEM, you’re about to be. While there’s plenty of excellent wild fermentation in this book, usually my preference, some of my very favorite recipes here are those that had me online with my credit card. There are so many recipes here that creatively use cultures, like the chickpea and wild rice tempeh, the varied, heirloom yogurts and canned-bean natto. You’re gonna go nuts!

SO.MUCH.AWESOME.DAIRY.FERMENTATION

In addition to the ferments you’ve heard of, ferments you wish you’d thought of and the ones you immediately want to make, there are recipes for using all those things up. They range from the straightforward and delicious (sauerkraut dumplings, anyone?) to the thing that sounds a bit strange but will end up becoming your go-tos (PB&K, aka Peanut Butter and Kimchi Sandwich. Just trust me. It’s tops.).

Chock full o’ way too many goodies!

In short, this book provides excellent guidance on everything you’ve ever thought you might want to ferment but, even better, it provides inspiration to ferment things you probably never conceived of, and to push the boundaries until you find your perfect thing, be it your favorite flavor combination, your new favorite ferment or the ideal process.

One of my very faves, and proof that Byers knows his basics in addition to his advanceds

I’ll be sharing one the many awesome wild ferments from this book with you later in the week, but for now, enter below for your chance to make every single one of these fun, interesting and wildly delicious recipes.

There are the cookbooks you love and then there are the cookbooks that forever change your kitchen life. Karen Solomon’s Asian Pickles is both for me and has been ever since I bought it as a series of ebooks released late in 2013. The hardcover book, where you can find all of the ebooks bound together, was released this year. It includes added material which is crazy because the ebooks were already an overstuffed accordion folder of wonderful offerings.

The pickles pictured are from the Chinese pickles section. A truly surprising and spicy pickle that I made into a ferment.

The book is broken down into geographical sections: Japan, Korea, China, India and Southeast Asia, which includes recipes for Thai, Vietnamese, Philipino, and Indonesian and Malaysian pickles. Each chapter is a delight that showcases Solomon’s spirited love for the pickled dishes of these places where she has traveled, learned and eaten extremely well.

Last year I spent most of my time with the Japanese ebook, building a houseful of miso beds, nukdokos and cooking up loads of koji. After my first weekend with Solomon’s Japan, I bought the lot, and rarely have I made such an excellent culinary/literary decision. Although the hardcover, combined book goes well beyond the realm of fermented pickles, it feels like a fermenter wrote this book. The tone is relaxed, encouraging and often quite funny. The descriptions are extraordinarily evocative. Step-by-step photos could not be less necessary than they are with Solomon’s prose leading you into the temptation of wildly diverse pickling styles.

There are plenty of things here you are just going to want to make, be they fermented or refrigerated. There are plenty of cultured and fermented vegetables, made in traditional and less traditional fashions. There are plenty of recipes that are not written as ferments that are easily made into ferments (I’ve adapted several of the recipes from the Chinese and Indian sections of this book from vinegar pickles to ferments with great success).

I’ve spent a lot of time with this book and it will be on my shelf until the end of time or until it falls apart at the binding (I guess that’s what three-hole punches and binder rings are for). There are layers and layers of flavors here. There are so many brilliant and astounding techniques from different Asian traditions that you may sometimes feel shocked that you’ve been able to live your kitchen life without knowing many of them. I certainly was.

Look familiar kimchi lovers? A little summer ‘chi for your cukes!

In addition to the incredible number of techniques and the beautifully conceived and conveyed recipes, Solomon offers an overview of how each type of pickle would traditionally be served and eaten. This book made me realize that I was stuck in a rut, even though I was experimenting in the kitchen every day. It gave me the nudge to make things like my nukadoko and my first batch of indoor gochujang (for years I’d been hung up on the idea that it needed to be made outdoors in the sun). It’s had me putting my funky, fun herbs and spices to excellent use and it has inspired never-ending reams of ideas that I will share with you, undoubtedly, over the course of many years to come.

Just a little turmeric chutney! A great example of a recipe that isn’t fermented but could easily become so.

If you don’t win the giveaway, buy this book. I can’t imagine a fermenter who wouldn’t adore it from cover to cover. When not in use, it holds the truest place of honor in my home; right next to my (now signed!) copy of The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz on my fermentation bookshelf.

I purchased the ebooks, but I was provided with a free copy of the printed version by Ten Speed Press. Ten Speed will also be providing the winner with his or her own copy to hold, squeeze, love and splatter with delicious, pickled juices. All opinions are my own.

Fermentation inspires me for many reasons. Those communities of bacteria and fungi never fail to get me excited with their sugar-transforming processes. I may be a weirdo, but I know that I’m not alone in my weirdness. In addition to the communities of bacteria and fungi that compose cultures and make things ferment, there are the communities of people who share cultures and culture, tips and tricks and an endless flow of information about the practice. Those communities are just as important to fermentation as the microbes are, in my humble opinion. Without fermenting friends it would be so much less fun to gain an understanding of of these old and new traditions.

That’s why I’m so grateful to be a part of the community of fermenters supporting this Kickstarter project from FARMcurious. Nicole, the founder, is set on helping new fermenters feel comfortable with the help of her BPA-free kits. This Kickstarter will give her the funds to put these kits into production. And if you land yourself a kit, you’ll get products to make you comfy during your initial fermentation trials. And as I mentioned last week, the reCAP lids bring other benefits as well. They keep the fermentation odors to a minimum, prevent the build-up of CO2 that can lead to leaks or bursts and have a more sophisticated demeanor than my double jar/napkin habit look.

The kits are pretty, neat and pretty neat! If you give to the Kickstarter, you’ll have access to even cooler prizes including a recipe booklet with recipes from some of my favorite peeps, like Sean of Punk Domestics and Jane of the Fermenter’s Kitchen Facebook group. I contributed a new and improved version of my celery root pickle recipe.

The Kickstarter will continue for another few weeks but to share with the greater community of fermenters, Nicole is offering a kit to the readers of fermenty blogs from all over, including some of my favorites! To enter to win a kit of your own, leave a comment about a fermentation fear you have or used to have but have overcome!

Contest is open to Continental United States residents only. FARMcurious will provide one reader/commenter with a fermentation kit, retail value $25. Kit includes two reCAP mason jar lids with airlocks and fittings, packaging and recipe/use booklet. Contest is over.